Love at first sight has been going on here for twenty years. Back then, you needed a bit more persuasiveness and some pioneering spirit to move to the Glockenbachviertel with your family. It´s centrally located with affordable old-building flats, and no snobs. Those were the arguments then. These days, there is no question that the district is "in".
Glockenbach became part of the city rather late. It had served as a flood plain of the Isar river and was only dried up at the beginning of the 19th century. At first, mill owners and woodworkers settled along the numerous brooks, later joined by machine manufacturers. Street signs like Dreimühlen- oder Holzstraße ("three mills" and "wood") are testimonials of the city's history. The heigborhood owes its name to a former bell casting house, based in Pestalozzistrasse. The district's western limit is marked by the cemetery "Alter Südfriedhof" with a number of famous personalities buried there, such as painter Carl Spitzweg or architect Georg Bürklein. The north eastern limit is set by Fraunhoferstraße and the south eastern one by the Isar river.
Having been the home of craftsmen and tradesmen once, the Glockenbach heighborhood became the place to be for Gays and Lesbians. Locations like "Nil" in Hans-Sachs-Strasse 2 or the bookshop „Max & Milian“ in Ickstattstrasse 2 really matched the Zeitgeist. A proof of the quarter's openness and flexibility can be seen in the history of „Sushi & Soul“ in Klenzestraße 71. In the 80's it hosted the "Ball of lonesome hearts" with table telephone and dance music – an institution. When singles had realized that they were hot commodity the location turned into "Ballhaus", the city's first bar with Japanese food, and then into a Sushi restaurant with cool music.
Hans-Sachs-Strasse is always worth a stroll. Being only 200m long and lined by manorial buildings of the Wilhelminian era as well as several hairdressers and locations like the fancy "ess neun". Trendy boutiques, a theatre and hotel or the city's only specialist for botton holes and a cinema which is almost a hundred years old: "Neues Arena". For people living in this street there is no reason to leave it!
Yet, the quarter also offers oases that seemingly have passed the zeitgeist. "Fraunhofer" for example. Enjoy your beer and affordable Bavarian culinary delights while seated comfortably at long wooden tables. A treasure for cineastes can be found in the backyard: the "Werkstattkino". For over 33 years fans of venturous or wicked movies walk down the catacombs.
If asked today what's so special about the neighborhood one would answer for sure: its people of all ages and their differing living concepts as well as the casual and tolerant touch.
by Karin Nagl
Location: U1 / U2 Fraunhoferstraße
Highlights: hvnly - a heavenly café-bar
Baaderstraße 49, 80469 München
Telephone 089 20 20 60 36
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